What Is Dreaming And What Does It Tell Us About Dreaming By Pippe A. Lewis Textual Analysis

Textual Analysis of “What is Dreaming and What Does It Tell Us About Memory”
This article was published in Scientific American on July 18, 2014. In this article Penelope A. Lewis doesn’t just talk about dreaming. Lewis goes way deeper in scientific detail about dreaming and what it says about our memory. Lewis talks about the issues of recalling dreams and the facts that “not remembering dreams” is a false statement.
Content
The main point emphasized throughout the article is about dreaming and what effect it has on our memory. Also, the article talks about the 5 stages of sleep and what happens to a person’s memory when dreaming in each of these stages. Lewis emphasizes on the physical bases of dreaming. She says many times throughout the
The article is in essay form. It has a very organized format. It has many great factual points. The author writes in the beginning a real-life scenario of someone having a vivid nightmare. Then leading into the second paragraph talking about what a dream is and how people sometimes can’t recall their dream. This really sets the tone for the middle of the article. Lewis talks about memories in dreams in the middle of the article. The author says, “The brain goes offline.” “this effect is only true for people who report vivid dreams, and it happens to only be true in REM sleep.” By the author saying this, is gives the reader an idea of what is going to be talked about in the end of the article. The main point in the end is why do we have different kinds of dreams at different stages of the night. Lewis talks about how some dreams are more realistic and logical while others are unstructured and jump rapidly out of order making them bizarre. The author states this happens because the hippocampus and neocortex are in communication during different sleep stages. Lewis wants the audience to really understand what is happening in everybody’s minds while at
In the beginning Lewis is giving us basics knowledge of dreams themselves. She goes on throughout the article giving the audience information on the physical effects in has on humans to dream. She then gets the crowd thinking a little bit. Do Dreams Serve a Purpose. By talking about this topic, Lewis is making readers critically think for themselves on whether or not their dreams have served purposes through day-to-day life. Towards the end of the article the author switches tones by talking about the memory itself. Being the reader, this mood change gives more knowledge about other areas that people might not even